Cary, N.C. - The Blue Chips move on to the 2018 USA Baseball 16U Cup championship game on Sunday after defeating the Brooklyn Bonnie Rockets by a score of 6-1 at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.
Tyler Schimming was dominant for the Blue Chips. He turned in an impressive seven innings of one-run ball, while allowing just four hits and striking out eight. He needed 96 pitches to throw the complete game.
The two teams battled back and forth, with neither gaining much ground for much of the first half of the game. The Blue Chips were first on the board with an RBI groundout in the bottom of the second inning, but the Rockets quickly answered back with a run of their own in the fourth inning.
It wasn't until the bottom of the fourth inning that the Blue Chips started to pull away. Joe Radek hit a two-run inside-the-park home run to break the tie, and the Blue Chips didn't look back. Schimming did not allow a run for the rest of the game and Sean Kelly gave the Blue Chips some much needed insurance runs with a bases clearing double in the sixth inning.
Joe Radek and Sean Kelly went a combined 4-5 in the game and were responsible for five of the six Blue Chips runs.
The Blue Chips will square off against the Carolina Rebels in the championship game at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday afternoon.
Follow along on GameChanger and on Twitter, @USABEvents, for more information and live updates about the 2018 USA Baseball 16U Cup.